Two local mayors face challengers in November election.
The election is all but over for six mayoral candidates in Skagit and Whatcom counties — but the race is on in two towns in San Juan and Skagit counties.
Each seeks to become the elected chief executive officer of their city, presiding over council meetings, representing the city, preparing annual budgets, overseeing department heads and leading crisis response.
Barring a successful challenge by a write-in candidate, the six running unopposed who will take or remain in office on Jan. 1, 2026, are:
- William (Bill) Aslett, a former Burlington City Council member appointed by the council as mayor in 2024 to succeed Steve Sexton, who resigned to become special projects manager for the City of Mount Vernon. Burlington has a population of 10,358; the mayor is paid $50,898 a year.
- Bruce Bosch, the mayor of Sumas since 2022. He previously served 12 years on the city council. Sumas, a border city south of Abbotsford, B.C., has a population of 1,665; the mayor is paid $7,200 a year and a $125 per month travel stipend.
- John Perry, a commercial and residential builder and Everson’s mayor since 2010. Everson has a population of 3,071; the mayor receives $5,000 a year plus $17,500 in benefits.
- Kevin Hester, mayor of Nooksack since 2022 and a retired chief civil deputy with the Whatcom County sheriff’s office. Nooksack has a population of 1,539; the mayor receives $9,000 a year plus $150 a month per diem. Hester’s son, Collin, is a council member.
- Scott Korthuis, product manager for an agricultural harvesting equipment manufacturer and mayor of Lynden since 2020. Lynden has a population of 16,551; the mayor is paid $39,143 a year.
- Ryan Walters, an Anacortes city council member since 2012 and now the presumptive mayor of his 18,012-population city. The mayor is paid $124,000 a year. Walters is a former Skagit County deputy prosecuting attorney and assistant planning director.
All told, there are 149 candidates for 100 offices in Whatcom County, 126 candidates for 81 offices in Skagit County and 50 candidates for 43 offices in San Juan County — school boards, cemetery and fire district commissions, city and town councils and mayors.
The primary election is on Aug. 5; the general election is on Nov. 4. (Mayoral offices in Bellingham, Blaine, Ferndale, Mount Vernon, Sedro-Woolley, Hamilton, La Conner and Lyman are not up for election this year.)
Facing challenges
The unopposed candidates, freed from campaigning, have the luxury of meeting with constituents and planning for their upcoming terms, which begin on Jan. 1. It’s a different story for their counterparts in Concrete and Friday Harbor.
Concrete Mayor Marla Reed, food service director for the local school district for 24 years and the second woman mayor in the town’s history, is being challenged by Jeremy Akers, who retired as an elevator construction manager to dive into Concrete life. He’s a disc jockey for KSVU 90.1 FM, a volunteer community radio station; a board member of the Skagit Tourism Bureau; a volunteer firefighter; and owner of a tavern and a liquor store. He served for 11 months on the town council in 2022–23, resigning to work on transforming the town’s landmark concrete silos into a climbing wall.
Concrete has a population of 800 residents, and the mayor is paid $19,612 a year. The winner of the November general election will oversee a budget of $3.2 million and the update to the town’s comprehensive plan, park improvements, sidewalk upgrades and town beautification projects.
In Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Mayor Ray Jackson is challenged for reelection by Pamela Hoke, a fine artist and brand designer; Evan Perrollaz, owner of a coffee roasting company and deputy superintendent of the local hospital district; Emilio Santiago, archaeologist and cartographer at San Juan Island National Historical Park; and Tanja Williamson, outreach and volunteer coordinator for the San Juan County Land Bank.
Friday Harbor has a population of 2,747 and is the county seat, the only incorporated community in San Juan County and the economic center of San Juan Island. Washington State Ferries has a terminal on the island, and the town is a U.S. port of entry.
Jackson, owner of an internet and satellite service company, was a newcomer to Friday Harbor politics when he was elected mayor in 2021. His position pays $13,200 a year and is the town’s chief executive office, but much of the responsibility of managing the daily operations of government is delegated to a full-time town administrator.
Staying connected
Walters was a candidate for Anacortes mayor in 2021, losing by 199 votes to fellow council member Matt Miller. Miller, a retired Navy officer, served eight years on the council before being elected mayor. He chose not to seek reelection.
“I absolutely plan to hit the ground running on day one,” Walters said. “For the next seven months, I’m going to be meeting with department heads and voters. In the absence of a regular campaign and fundraising events, I want to make sure that I don’t lose that connectivity with the people that ultimately will be voting for me in November. I’ve posted a link on my website for anybody to book time with me.”
Walters’ priorities: housing affordability and economic development, improving the city’s fiscal condition and completion of amenities that will attract more working families and visitors to Anacortes. Among them, a community recreation center that is proposed to be privately funded; expansion of the Guemes Channel Trail, which he said would provide public access to the waterfront as well as an alternative way of getting around town without a motorized vehicle; and an events center in which the city is partnering with the Port of Anacortes.
“We have even or declining sales tax revenue in real dollars adjusted for inflation, and property tax revenues do not increase unless you get new construction,” he said. “We haven’t had a lot of new construction, so property tax revenues are largely flat. That’s not sustainable. We need to either cut expenses significantly or generate more revenue in some way, and sales tax is probably the way to do that — not through increasing the rate, but through increasing economic activity.”
In Sumas, Mayor Bosch is trying to mitigate the economic impacts from the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian imports.
“Over the course of the last couple of months, tariff implementation has affected shopping in Sumas — and we don’t have a lot of shopping here anyway — but sales at the package stores and grocery store are reportedly down 50%,” he said.
Sumas is home to a large feed mill and the city is also a major rail and trucking port. But Sumas is short on housing, and Bosch said the city will need more homes for working families as it grows its economy.
“Housing affordability is an issue statewide,” Bosch said. “We don’t have a lot of new construction going on, because we’re out of space.” Sumas is working on expanding its urban growth area, a first step toward annexation, and is updating its comprehensive plan, the city’s blueprint for growth.
Bosch said he feels like he’s where he needs to be as Sumas tackles its challenges. He hopes running unopposed is an endorsement of the job he’s doing.
“It’s just been kind of that way for me,” Bosch said. He ran unopposed for city council, “and then in the year I ran for mayor the first time, all of a sudden everybody was running for my council position. I don’t know what that means. I guess it was meant to be.”
— By Richard Arlin Walker
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Commentary: Down-ballot elections can change lives in seismic ways,” March 25, 2025
• “Is the future of Bellingham’s Port five or three commissioners?” Jan. 14, 2025
• “Paradox of passion, apathy impacts young voter turnout,” June 23, 2023
• “Impact, importance high in school board elections,” June 16, 2023